Cleveland, Ohio - A Chicago-area developer has gained control of a prominent corner in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood, where offices, apartments, retail and parking could rise across the street from the West Side Market.

Harbor Bay Real Estate Advisors has a contract to buy - and a vision of demolishing - the Market Plaza shopping center at West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue. The developer also is finalizing a deal to purchase a nearby parking lot from a group of West Side Market tenants.

Images presented to a neighborhood block club this week show that Harbor Bay hopes to erect a 12-story office building and a slightly shorter apartment building on the 3-acre site.

It's still early, so the designs and details are likely to evolve. But the plans show roughly 137,000 square feet of offices, 260 apartments, up to 46,000 square feet of retail and between 550 and 560 garage parking spaces. The buildings would get shorter as they approach Lorain, in an attempt to acknowledge and preserve views of the market and its 137-foot-tall clock tower.

A site plan also shows almost an acre of green space off Lorain, framed by the U-shaped apartment building. That pocket-like park could host splash pads for children in summer and ice skating for families in the winter, said Mark Bell, Harbor Bay's chief executive officer.

"From day one," Bell said, "the entire design and engineering and thought process of the development was completely focused on complementing the West Side Market."

The Market Plaza shopping center, at right, and the West Side Market are visible from the roof of the Cleveland Hostel across the street.Michelle Jarboe/The Plain Dealer

Based in Northbrook, Illinois, Harbor Bay focuses on mixed-use projects, urban sites and proximity to transit. The wedge-shaped Market Plaza corner fits that mold, since it's steps away from a Greater Regional Transit Authority Red Line train station, at an intersection teeming with bus traffic and surrounded by a growing network of bicycle trails and urban parks.

Market Plaza caught the company's eye due to Dan Whalen, a 30-year-old Willoughby native who started working in real estate in 2012 and moved to Chicago in 2014. A former high school, college and arena-football quarterback, Whalen signed on at Harbor Bay in May. By that point, he'd been watching Market Plaza, which a previous employer took a run at, for six years.

"He would call on a pretty regular basis to check on the site. He was very persistent. ... These guys are looking at this pretty aggressively," said Tom McNair, executive director of Ohio City, Inc., a nonprofit neighborhood group that has been part of long-running discussions about redevelopment possibilities for the corner.

Five years ago, a planning study called for housing and parking to replace the S-shaped Market Plaza building. So the prospect of large-scale development wasn't a complete surprise to nearby residents who saw Harbor Bay's proposal this week.

"This isn't the first time anybody had ever mentioned this, which I think is helpful," said Julia Sieck, who chairs the South of Lorain Block Club.

She said neighbors were enthusiastic about the plan and appreciative that Harbor Bay is considering parking, alternative transportation, traffic issues and views. Members largely voted in favor of the conceptual plan. The developer hopes to present the project to city commissions later this year, with the goal of starting construction in late summer or early fall of 2019.

Bell wouldn't talk about anticipated project costs or purchase prices for the properties.

Market Plaza is home to local and national tenants, from a nail salon to a Sherwin-Williams paint store. The existing landlord and Harbor Bay are talking to the tenants about options, and neighborhood leaders say they want to keep the retailers in Ohio City.Michelle Jarboe/The Plain Dealer

Darrell Young, who developed Market Plaza with his brothers in the late 1980s and still owns it, also wouldn't divulge the sale price. But he believes Harbor Bay will be a good steward for a property that has drawn a flurry of inquiries from would-be buyers in recent years.

"My brothers and I and the partners in the center are longtime Clevelanders," Young said. "Our legacy, our family legacy, is very important to us. We wanted to pick people to do business with that we trusted and that we felt would be fair and would deal in good faith."

When Young built Market Plaza, the nearby RTA station was surrounded by weeds and a scrum of trash. Vandalism and vacancy abounded. Nearby residents were grateful to have new places to shop and grab food. Onlookers were less certain the neighborhood was a good bet.

"I think people thought we were crazy," Young said. "Ohio City 30 years ago was not the same as it is now. We took a very substantial financial risk when we built the property, and we've been fortunate that the center's been occupied throughout our ownership. And we feel fortunate that Ohio City has come to life."

Now single-story retail, surrounded by a parking lot, isn't considered the best use for a corner that sits across from the market, a renovated historic bank building and Market Square Park. Whalen and Young said they're talking to Market Plaza retailers about their options, from relocating in the neighborhood to exploring the possibility of leasing space at the new project.

"There are absolutely vacancies in the neighborhood that some of these businesses could fill," said City Councilman Kerry McCormack, who represents the area.

McCormack expressed particular excitement about the office component of the project - something few developers have an appetite to build in Cleveland. McNair said his staff fields frequent calls from employers seeking 5,000 to 25,000 square feet in the area, and striking out.

"Cleveland's not Chicago, obviously, but there's this greater movement happening, and it's not a fad," Whalen said. "We think it's a long-term trend of companies realizing that they've got to put themselves closer to where people want to live. And the next generation of employees wants to be more urban and near ... transit. This site offers the best of both things."

A first-floor site plan shows the proposed layout of Harbor Bay's project, which will include offices, apartments, retail and parking.HPA

Harbor Bay still has hurdles to overcome. The project will require some zoning tweaks, related to its square footage but not its height, and city design approvals. And the developer is talking to city officials about financing. Bell wouldn't get into details, but residential property-tax abatement and other property-tax breaks are common incentives for new construction.

"We have had a preliminary discussion and look forward to continued discussions with Harbor Bay," David Ebersole, the city's interim economic development director, said in an emailed statement.

RTA also confirmed that its representatives met with Harbor Bay.

The cash-strapped transit agency doesn't have money allocated to renovate the Ohio City Rapid station. If there's any attempt to physically link the project to the station, a private developer would have to pay the bill. But RTA is willing to help a developer to find other sources of public or private money.

Within weeks, RTA expects to solicit interest from developers in nearby land it owns on Columbus Road. "The goal is to create a high-quality, dense, mixed-use, transit-oriented development on the site, which could complement this new Harbor Bay project," spokeswoman Linda Krecic wrote in an email.

Last but far from least, Harbor Bay is continuing conversations with tenants at the West Side Market, where parking woes have long vexed vendors and customers. For decades, a group of tenants has owned a 92-space parking lot off Gehring Street, behind Market Plaza, as low-cost parking for vendors and employees.

The developer plans to buy and build on that lot and, in turn, is promising the vendors 135 spaces in the new garage. It's likely the office building's garage will be available for public parking on the weekends, providing an alternative to the busy surface lots behind the market.

"We're on board with the project," said Tony Pinzone, owner of Pinzone's Meats and a leader of the vendor group involved in the potential land sale. "We're very excited about the neighborhood development, and we're working toward a contract. ... I'm confident that it will be fine, but there's some things that we need to make sure that we talk about."

This is the first time the vendors have considered selling. Ryan Sheppard, of the Frank's Bratwurst stand, believes new housing and offices across the street will be a boon to businesses at the city-owned food hall. "From construction to operations, there's going to be a lot of foot traffic - and a lot of people that aren't aware of what the West Side Market is," he said.